Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

HEATS Light turnouts in b oth t he Grand Na tio na l an d Ha rley Da v id s on 883 classes did little to a id in speeding u p th e show, whic h was d elayed by poor track cond itions early. Pro moter Lanny Ed wards and crew had to put in a bit of ove rtime to get the tra ck d ialed in, and the first 883cc heat rolled onto the track at 9:12 p.m. The first 750cc hea t did not ge t underway until 9:40 p.m . USC Racing's yo u thful charge r Kevin ' Varnes started the night off well for his team in the first l o-lap heat by grabbing the holeshot ov er Davis and Loral Lake Racing' s Ronnie Jones and then tightroping his way around on the not yet full y d eveloped groove to score a flagto-flag win. "T ha t was awes ome, huh?" Varnes joked . "Th e bike' s dialed in , and the track definitely came around. It's better now than it was in the scratch heats. I was waiting for someone to poke a w heel in there, but it never happened." Davis tried to hang with the young Pen nsylvanian before settling down and distancing himself from Jones. Davis took the second and final transfer position in the heat some th ree second s behind Varnes and nearly the same distance ahead o f the third-placed Jones, and a fourth -placed and s t ru ggli n g Parker. "We wer e set up pretty bad, and he (Varnes) just got to pulling away from us, " Davis said. "He's fast, especially on all these slick half miles . There's a bunch of new guys who can get in there." King rolled the Garvis entry out onto the track in heat two. After a brief dice with Beattie a nd Bob Norfleet Racingbacked Rusty Rogers, the Iowan cut a trail toward the Grand National. pulling out to a tw o-second advantage a t th e finish line. "I rod e real conservative in the main even t," King sai d . "I didn't want to do a nythi ng stu pi d . Th e track went from terrible to ha lfw ay decent. I. th in k it's go ing to be a Ho nda race tra ck. Hopfully this Honda ." Rogers and Beattie rod e together for just two laps before Rogers foun d the measure of th e Canadian th en pulled awa y an d in to th e s how. Earning the transfer was a big step forward for the 27 -year-old Virg inian, who has bee n struggling thus far in the season. "It's always good to get through as fast as you ca n," Rogers sai d. "M aybe so me people like to rid e those semis to ge t a feel for the track later, but I like to go through early on." Heat th ree was all Morehead . The wily vetera n jumped out front on the start and then poured the coals to his Gary Stolzenburg-prepped XR750 despite the fact that he ran unchallenged. "I was tryin' as hard as I could so I could have the fastest heat and se t on the pole for the main eve nt," Morehead said . "The track is getting better. Where it's really bla ck, it's getting slicker, but the groove is starting to get where yo u can run abo ve or below it." M cCoy a n d Mo roney ' s Harley Davidson-ba cked Georgie Pric e IV bat tled briefl y o n la p thre e, but McC oy pulled away fro m the burly Price Nand earned the second ticket to the featu re . "I had my mind made u p that I was makin' that final." McCoy sa id . "This is my home track and I ha ve a lot of spo nso rs and a lot of fri ends here. Man, I needed that." The fina l heat belonged to Price N 's up-and -coming M oroney' s teammate Mike Hacker, who used a brilliant drive to pass a hard -cha rging Terry Poovey off tu rn tw o on the eigh th lap to sco re the win. It was TCR Racing's Kevin Ath erton, however, who provided most of the fireworks in heat fou r. The kinder, gentler Atherto n appeared to have stayed home fro m Dall as, and "Ac tio n Man" Atherton had shown up o nce again . The Michiga nder started in fou rth and the n attempted to bla ze his way toward the fro nt via d aring outside passes of bo th Hac ker and Joe Kopp. But then just as it appeared that Atherton would wrestle th e lead fro m Poovey, Ath erton's bike stood u p in the m iddle of turns three and four and the hapless rid er shot off the fourt h turn at a high rate of speed, disappearing into the parking ar ea for (Above) Homeboy: McCoystuck to the low line all night and rode It to a second-place finish· the best In his Grand National career - in front of his fellow Texans . (Left ) Rich King finished a steady fourth. the track's grading equipment. Atherton so me how threaded his way between all of the parked heavy equipment unscathed. "The cotter pins in the bra ke caliper b roke a nd th e brake pad s fell out," a so mewhat sh aken Atherton said . "That g ra der looked lik e it was gonna hurt, and the John Deere wasn't gonna move, so I found a way between those . But then there was a fence on the other side of them with a ga te to the outside, and luckil y t he ga te w a s o p e n, so I ro de throu gh that. But then I was in the parking lot wi th all the cars, I finally go t her s to p ped down a t Lawson Road . God was on my side there." SEMIS Springsteen led Jones and TCR Racing's Dan Bu tler into the feature via semi one, while Price IV, Canada's Chris Evans and Parker came through semi two . Beattie, Atherton and Moroney' s rider Ja son Fletcher rounded out th e Grand National field , Fletcher earning his first Grand National berth since his inju ry at Oklahoma City in 1994. 883 NATIONAL Thou gh their were only 16 883 rid ers on hand, the action in the class wa s anything but light. The big bikes had trouble ne gotiating th e moist groove, a nd crashes were prevalent. Springsteen got the holeshot and led th e fir st la p, but Paul Bergstrom a nd Victor McAnally collided, caus ing a red fl a g. On the r est art, Doug Beatti e jumped in to a health y lead and tried to esca pe. Behind him, the pos ition-swappin g was furi ou s as James Hart, Phillip Lash and Sp ringsteen jockeyed. Hart fell back a nd Sp rin gsteen quickly d isposed of Lash befo re hunting down Beattie . Springsteen ran down Beattie on lap five, drove by him on the outside, and th at was all she wrote. Beattie would also succumb to an aggessive Fletcher, who earned second a t th e fin ish, b ut Beattie was satisfied nonehteless. "I'Il tak e third," Beattie said . "It's bet ter than what I' ve been doing all year, so it feels good to be on the podium." , I jus t slo wed d own ou t th ere ," Fletcher said. "I a lm ost got Jay, bu t I messed up four different times in turn four." GRAND NATIONAL By the time the fastest 17 dirt track ' riders in the country rolled to the line for the Grand Nationa l finale , the groove had gotten wide and fast , and se vera l riders had the potential to take the win. Getting the start was crucial. Davis went straight to the front from his third starti ng position on the front row when the green light flashed, with Morehead, Beattie and McCo y filing in behind him. Hacker and Springsteen ra n just behind the grou p as King quickl y en tered the picture by lap four . Davis and Morehead beg an to check o u t a lm o s t im m e di a te ly as both appeared to have fou nd a fast line just ab ov e the rubber-laden groove. Beattie a lso elected to stay hi gh, but McC oy fou nd success on the low sid e. "I ran the bottom for the whole race," McCoy said, "I saw them gu ys running the high gr oove, but I never even tried it." . ' In the meantime, King had d ispl aced Hacker by lap five, and he was coming after Springs teen . "We ran off the track ea rly on," King said. "The th ro ttl e was sticking, and I had to snap it a couple of times to get into the corners. I ran into Spri ngs teen out there, right into the sid e of him. I went down and apologized to him, but he didn't even know I hit him." With Davis and Morehead clear, Beattie still ran thi rd with McCoy several lengths adrift, but a miscue sent the former Canadian National Champion wide in turn one around lap 11. "I made a bad mistake," Beattie said. "I don't know whether I went in too fast or I just missed the brake pedal. That' s when Willie pa ssed me , I made o ne more mistake in three and four later, and that's when King passed me." Up fro n t, Morehead co n ti n ued to shadow Davis, and th e Ohioan fin ally pulled off th e qu in tessential move by driving around the ou tside of the North Carolinan off turn 'fou r . Davis wasn't the least bit surprised. " I knew that I wa s holdin ' him (Morehead ) up a bit," Davis said. "He was hoo ked up all night long." "H e wasn't holdingrne up at all. I th ou ght we were go ing the sa me speed," Morehead sai d. "If he wo uld n' t have hit the bump in tu rns one and two, then I n ever w ould hav e figu re d ou t how to ge t aro u nd him . But he started slowing down and worrying .abou t that bump." From th ere, the race was a ll Morehead 's as he would put nearl y five seconds on second p lace by lap 23. Davis ho w e ver, was not done fig h ti ng fo r posi tion as the scrappy McCoy had been ru nning in third place and was ra pidly moving forward. King was also putting on one of his patented late-race charges after passin g Springer. He closed on Beattie by lap 17, and when the Canadian bobbled in turn three, King took advantage, moving in to fourth p lace where he would finish his run. " I' ve never been on the podium before, but I really th ink I could have been on the podium tonight," King said. "I th ink our team is wor king real well and we had what it took. We let this one slip through our fingers:' Even as Morehead w as taking th e checkered flag. ' Davis was letting second pla ce slip a way . McC oy had ca u g h t Davis in turns one and two, and he put on the charg e of doom down th e back s tra ig h t to pull in to Da vi s ' shadow . Davis handled the pressure well, setting up on the sa me line through three ana four tha t he had u sed a ll ni ght. But McCoy had a full head of steam and dropped right to the apron of the race track, putting a Texas-style slide job on Davis off the fina l corne r to earn seco ndplace laurels. "Tha t was great," Davis said . '1 jus t went in there rid ing my sa me line, but he came in underneath and took it away 31

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